n00b to MMA amateur comp fighting, w/ Q's requiring A's

I've got a solid background in muay thai and wrestling. I have a coupla questions as regards fighting in the cage; thing that would be of great use to me to know, be you all having the experience I would expect.

How effective are knee strikes in a fight? I never see cage fighters exchanging roundhouses like they do in Thailand, but I'm wondering how much use the legs end up being at all. One half of me tends to think it's down to personal preference, but the other compels me to ask, just to make sure I'm not making too many assumptions.

I suppose, though, the biggest question is how does the transition from amateur to semi-pro normally work?

Depends on whos throwing them. Seriously though,have you sparred much full MMA? how effective did you find knee strikes? could you execute them at will or did you find yourself being taken down,even with a strong wrestling background?
Mate, i dont even know where to start with amateur a,b,c,nsac,semi- alls i know is the rules referred to as nsac ama are basically pro without elbows,heels hooks and neck cranks- but semi pro is the same but no g&p= might have it wrong,but it is confusing and semi pro seems a bit daft. What have your coaches said on the matter?

Nothing on the matter yet. I've been doing some miscellaneous training for a few years. Had some training partners, that's about it. Has been a long time since muay thai. To be quite honest, most of my recent experience is in street fighting... I've just found, these past few years, that it creates more problems than anything else. I'm interested into moving into a realm that requires of the fighters respect and discipline.

From the sparring I have done, I've not particularly found myself easy to take down. Knee strikes or not, I generally stay on my feet and if not I can get into a sprawl position pretty quickly. I'm putting a lot of it down to having very good spatial awareness and awareness of my own body. I generally tend to fight by getting a feel for where the pressure is being exerted in my body and trying to kind of halve it with force from the opposing side of my body. And yes, I have found knee strikes to be affective in sparring as well as a couple of times in scrap situations.

I'm actually going to be going to Trojan Free Fighters in the new year and seeing what they can do for me. I'm basically taking everything back to the drawing board, seeing where I excel, and paying great attention to what problem areas there may be, as I am sure there are a few. I'm a bit more interested with getting my endurance up. In the end, though, I am a very smart fighter, and I think that's what will win it over, in the end -- albeit I must admit to having been quite stupid about fighting in my younger years... but hey ho, life is a constant learning experience.

Mate, thats the best thing you can do. Get to a decent school and listen to your coaches-boring answer but the truth. Probably best to keep your street fighting tactics/secrets to yourself though, as they tend to not work and/or not go down well an any decent MMA place. Oh, and prepare to be humbled.A lot. Its one thing to throw a dig at an out of shape drunk,but nothing hits home as hard as a 9 stone 16 year old kid in a pokemon t shirt pulling off gogplatas at will when rolling (my first roll in a proper school). Good luck!